Mining law won’t split Quebec in two jurisdictions: minister

Quebec’s natural resources minister has rejected a proposal to split the province into two separate mining jurisdictions, one in the South and one in the North, as debate over reforming the regulatory regime for mines enters the home stretch.

Bill 14, an effort to modernize mining regulations seen as critical to Premier Jean Charest’s much-hyped plan to develop Quebec’s North, has run into opposition from both industry and environmentalists in recent months.

The debate took a new twist Friday morning when Montreal newspaper La Presse reported that Daniel Bernard, a Liberal member who sits on the committee studying the bill, suggested to the minister that section 91 of the bill be applicable below the 47th parallel, while not applying to the province’s north.

Section 91 gives municipalities the discretion to cancel a mining project by rezoning land within their territory.

The Parti Quebecois pounced on the story as evidence the Liberals are not fully unified behind the bill, which has been debated in committee since October.

“This morning’s revelation that Daniel Bernard is looking for a solution to change Bill 14 is a good sign,” said Parti Quebecois mining critic Martine Ouellette in a press release.

“It’s about time a Liberal MLA learned that Bill 14 won’t enrich Quebeckers,” she said.

However the party doesn’t support Bernard’s proposal, she said in an interview, calling it “nonsense.”

“We’ve already looked at section 91,” said Ouellette. “It’s too late to change it now.”

Natural Resources Minister Serge Simard, who is shepherding the bill through a lengthy committee process, declined an interview on the topic.

But a spokesperson did say in an email that Simard met with Bernard recently to discuss the proposed split in jurisdictions.

Bernard was attempting to address the concerns of his constituency, a hot spot for mining in the province, wrote Pierre-Olivier Lussier.

In the end, Bernard agreed with Simard that Bill 14 as it stands now does enough to calm those worries and the government has no intention of re-opening debate on article 91, he said.

“We cannot have two regulatory regimes for mining in Quebec,” he said in the email. “That would create instability and would make managing the regime very difficult.”

Bernard’s attempt to amend Bill 14 was seen as an effort to help the mining industry. The bill increases the threshold for public consultations over mining projects and increases the penalties for non-compliance.

But environmentalists have protested the bill loudly ever since last summer when the government began finalizing the proposed text.

The lack of any reforms in terms of the province’s royalty schemes has drawn the ire from the Coalition Quebec meilleur mine, one of the most vocal critics of the bill.

The coalition has repeatedly commented on the proposed law and argued it doesn’t offer enough environmental protections. Calls to its president Ugo Lapointe were not returned

The Parti Quebecois has echoed those views in nationalist terms, suggesting the Charest government is choosing to enrich foreign multinationals instead of Quebeckers.

There must also be provisions to better clean up abandoned mines, said Ouellette, the party’s mining critic.

Members of the national assembly have been studying the bill in committee since October, but it’s based on reports that go as far back as 2009.

The Parti Quebecois have been accused of obstructing the bill by adding amendments in committee and believe the Liberals might soon invoke cloture to end debate on the bill.

There are still 12 sections left to study, but Ouellette wouldn’t suggest a timeline for the study’s completion.

“It’s depends on the government,” said Ouellette. “If they accept our propositions it will go a lot faster.”

Charest’s government has been pushing forward a plan to open up the province’s North to development, known as le Plan Nord, in recent months. The project aims to increase mineral and other resource development over the next 25 years, and will lead to more than $80 billion in investments and create on average 20,000 jobs a year, the government claims.